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ATV riders to feds: Open Utah trail to vehicles

A narrow trail snaking through a remote southeastern Utah canyon dotted with cottonwood trees and Indian ruins is the latest battleground in a long-running dispute between Western residents and the federal

A narrow trail snaking through a remote southeastern Utah canyon dotted with cottonwood trees and Indian ruins is the latest battleground in a long-running dispute between Western residents and the federal government over public use of land.

Led by San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman, dozens of ATV riders are planning to rumble through Recapture Canyon near Blanding, Utah, on Saturday to protest the continuing closure of the trail to vehicles. The federal Bureau of Land Management closed the trail to motorized use in 2007, and declined to reopen it despite repeated requests and protests from local government officials.

Now, invoking the name of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy who fought with the BLM over cattle grazing, the ATV riders are planning a show of force.

"I have said a number of times, this protest is not about Recapture, or about ATVs, it is about the jurisdictional creep of the federal government," Lyman said in a Facebook posting explaining the planned protest. "We have a federal government that is out of touch. And it is our fault for letting them forget their proper role."

In a statement, BLM officials reiterated the ATV protest is illegal, but declined to discuss how they planned to respond.

Recapture Canyon is just outside tiny Blanding, about 74 miles south of Moab and about 300 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. Out here, territorial conflicts aren't new. A federal appeals court last month rejected San Juan County's years-long efforts to force the BLM to reopen a different road in nearby Canyonlands National Park, the legacy of the "Sagebrush Rebellion" sparked by congressional passage in 1976 of an act ceding ownership of public lands to federal land managers such as the BLM.

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At the heart of the Recapture squabble is a question over whether federal officials are overreaching in their efforts to close off motorized access to long-used roads. While the federal government generally argues such closures are necessary to protect the environment and cultural resources, locals see those steps eroding their right to use what they consider public roads.

In 2005, two Utah men built bridges and rock walls to make it easier for ATVs to drive the 7 miles through Recapture Canyon; they were fined $35,000 for what the government deemed illegal trail construction, and motorized access to the trail was halted.

On much of the land controlled by the BLM, people are allowed to drive vehicles anywhere they want. But tightening regulations and enforcement have many in the West concerned. Bundy got into an armed standoff with BLM officials last month after rangers tried to round up his cattle they said were illegally grazing on land his family has been using for decades. The rangers eventually left the area, unable to collect court-ordered judgments against Bundy.

Because the federal government owns more than 90% of San Juan County, its actions can have a wide-ranging effect. In 2012, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a law demanding the federal government transfer millions of acres of land to the state, a move even the bill's sponsors acknowledged would probably fail but said was designed to send a message to Washington. Federal lands don't generate property taxes, a key source of K-12 education funding.

"There's a lot of anger out there (and) this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Liz Thomas, a field attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "If the BLM and the federal government shut their eyes to this lawlessness, it's a very bad precedent for public lands in Utah."

The alliance has repeatedly clashed with Lyman and the other San Juan County commissioners, most recently winning a court battle to keep closed a road through Canyonlands. Thomas said federal land managers are charged with protecting the land and resources for multiple uses, and sometimes that requires closing off public access. She said the 2005 illegal trail building demonstrated the need to keep motorized vehicles out of Recapture Canyon.

“I could herd 2,000 cows down that trail today, and it would be perfectly legal. But if I were to simply touch that trail with one rubber-tired ATV, I'd cause all kinds of irreparable damage?”

San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman

"It's chock full of cultural resources from 2,000 years ago. People lived there, they raised their families there, worshiped there, celebrated there, buried their dead there," Thomas said. "We are definitely hoping that the law applies to everybody, and the federal government does stand up to lawbreakers, a county commissioner or otherwise."

BLM officials said they were working with local law enforcement in advance of the Saturday protest, but no one knows how many people will show up. Bundy's standoff with the BLM last month drew dozens of armed supporters to his side.

"The BLM-Utah believes that many of these exceptional archaeological resources will be damaged by the proposed illegal ATV ride through Recapture Canyon," said BLM state director Juan Palma. "The BLM-Utah has not and will not authorize the proposed ride and will seek all appropriate civil and criminal penalties against anyone who uses a motorized vehicle within the closed area."

Lyman says he feels a moral obligation to defend the culture and customs of his county, and a duty to assert the county's legal right to a road used for generations. He said the BLM's decision to close the road makes no sense, and he's willing to push it to the point of breaking the law.

"I could herd 2,000 cows down that trail today, and it would be perfectly legal. But if I were to simply touch that trail with one rubber-tired ATV, I'd cause all kinds of irreparable damage?" he asked rhetorically. "From a county standpoint, there's a road there and we claim it. It's a road. We don't claim the land. But the road is ours."